Lusaka Residents thank the President, Express total disappointment in the Mayor

The Mayor of Lusaka, His Worship Wilson Kalumba puts up the first poster to launch the Zambian Breweries’ new “18Plus SAY NO TO UNDERAGE DRINKING” campaign, accompanied by Zambian Breweries Country Director Jose Daniel Moran.Lusaka residents have applauded republican President Edgar Lungu for stepping in to help clean Lusaka .

The residents say the move to bring back sanity to the Lusaka central business district is welcome and long overdue , most residents spoken to have thanked the president for stepping in to provide solutions which are working and producing results .

“We are very thankful to His Excellency the President Mr Edgar Lungu for stepping in and bringing sanity back to the Lusaka central business district , he has shown us that he is a leader who means well for all of us , this place (CBD) was very dirty , the council despite getting levy every day failed to clean it , it had to take the president to step in and help bring sanity back , awe twa Tasha sana Bakateka besu”

The residents have also expressed total disappointment in the Lusaka mayor and local council for failing to keep Lusaka clean

“The Lusaka mayor needs to wake up , he is not doing what he is in that office for , surely does it have to take the presidency to come in and provide solutions of how to keep the city clean ? Then what is the mayor getting paid for , what is he doing in that office , what is the council doing , they need to wake up and do what is right , the council in kitwe has been doing a good job to keep kitwe clean even without the President intervening that shows that the mayor knows what he is there for , our mayor needs to wake up now ” some Lusaka residents spoken to have said .

Last week , President Lungu ordered the army to help contain Lusaka cholera outbreak a move which has seen most parks of Lusaka central business district cleaned up .

ba fee colour you are so annoying. goddamn you bloody africans. its as if its a curse to appreciate something good and end at that. you always need to hear yourselves complaining. cursed cursed cursed!

We shouldn’t be thanking ECL for correcting a disaster he comfortably lived .ECL knew a few years back that MCS approved the fatal error of letting vendors into central Lsk coz it was gonna bring votes to PF.

Lusaka residents are wrong they should be scolding ECL for bringing cholera thru his failures and omissions of the tenets of rule of law.
Politically expedient decisions to let vendors into Lusaka went against city by-laws and laws of health science.

Please let us not demonize the mayor. He tried to remove the street vendors and what did the provincial minister do? He sided with the vendors when he addressed them at the main post office. That’s is the problem of allowing lawlessness for the sake of gaining political mileage.

Why didn’t the mayor resign if his job was blocked by someone. That’s how it’s done. When you are getting a row dear simply pull out and give reasons. Failure to do that means you’ve compromised yourself.

You lusaka people are hypocrites,i remember some fews years back the mayor of lusaka wanted to remove all street vendors from the central business of lusaka.You all protested and cried like babies.Even the lusaka province minister came to your rescue and protected you from that eviction.The mayor looked a fool and you laughed at him with your usual dance songs and praise to your whoever! Today you change stance and start praising people that contributed to this calamity and you say they are the most wise?…..Good forbid,you are all the some kind!

I think we should respect vendors and give them more dignity and pride in their entrepreneurial spirit.
They are Zambians and not cadres.
Therefore,we should not only rejoice that they are not doing business in the CBD but be also actively involved in pushing for an alternative for them.
Our own business people need our support.

It is good that the vendors are out of streets but let us find a good trading place for them. They need to sell for income. They have children to take care of. So, GRZ, please build a 5 story Market at City Market which should accommodate all traders.

Honestly, a “five story market” to accommodate “all traders” sounds like a death trap! Who wants to haul their goods up and down five flights of stairs anyway? Imagine the fire risk (even with the best tenders!) or what happens next time ZESCO goes out.

Better for small traders should be to improve the markets in the compounds and suburbs. This is where customers live. If there needs to be a central wholesale market, particularly for agriculture, it should be clean and spacious, not a congested five story warren of stalls.

Street vending must be allowed like here in Johannesburg CBD but there must be systems or programs of cleaning everyday. The council must do their obligation of picking up garbage on the specified days and vendors must ensure they dispose off the waste in the designated areas and not everywhere like in the drains. An example of complacence or incompetence is Soweto market which is a designated market place and why were the council not cleaning and collecting garbage?. The council must employ street cleaners who must swing into action everyday after 7 in the evening

It is not enough to order cleaning the city. Someone should be fired for failure to clean. Otherwise no one is empowered to do anything unless ordered by the president. This means a repeat is on the way. As Africans we should know that garbage breeds diseases like cholera. It is simple elementary science. This case is similar to the police chief inducting Chinese men into the police force and then rescinding because he forgot to do some critical analysis. If the president keeps these inept people in office it will be a failure of leadership.

Vendors need to thank the Mayor for being tolerant it’s not a sign of weakness on his part. If the mayor acted against the vendors most of the PF members were going to say that He is making the party unpopular. Lusaka can not be compared to Kitwe it is highly political. It is a matter of collective responsibility not blame game. I just want to encourage the Mayor to continue working for the people.